Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella worries hackers could cause a 'breakdown of world order'
- Satya Nadella warned there could be a "breakdown of world order" in an interview with NBC News.
- The Microsoft CEO said that's a real risk if nations don't strike a "cyber Geneva Convention."
Satya Nadella said there's a real risk of a "breakdown of world order" if nations don't come up with a cyber "Geneva Convention."
In an interview with NBC Nightly News on Tuesday, the Microsoft CEO called for the US, Russia and China to unite and guard themselves against cyber attacks from malevolent states.
Nadella said he hoped the three powers could reach an agreement.: "If this is about nation-states attacking each other, and especially civilian targets, then we are in a very new world order. And it's a breakdown of world order, which I think we have not seen before."
The Geneva Conventions, comprised of four laws, were drafted in 1949 and lay out how civilians and soldiers should be treated in war. They are globally recognized legal standards signed by 196 states, per the United Nations.
Microsoft has been calling for a cyber Geneva Convention for many years. It said in a policy paper in 2017: "The world needs new international rules to protect the public from nation-state threats in cyberspace. In short, the world needs a Digital Geneva Convention."
Nadella's comments come after Microsoft said this month that Russia hackers breached its systems and gained access to a "very small percentage" of corporate email accounts.
Some in the senior leadership team had accounts breached, along with workers in departments including cybersecurity and legal.
The Russian hacking group Midnight Blizzard was trying to uncover information about itself from the corporate email accounts it targeted and was able to obtain "some emails and attached documents", Microsoft said in a blog post.
Commenting on the attack, Nadella told NBC: "I'm glad that we have the capability we have to even detect what they're doing on the cyber side."
Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insdier, made outside normal working hours.